Chapter 101: Wolf Scent and Missed Connections

“Please wait a moment, both of you.”

Something’s up with Princess Cat. Ji Li pulled out his phone and made a call. “Yan Long, could you come to the North Buffer Forest? Yes, right away.”

“Yan Long?” Hu Zifeng spun around in surprise, glancing down the slope.

As soon as he saw a sharp-eyed woman in camouflage stride over, Hu Zifeng snapped to attention and gave a military salute. “Captain Yan.”

Xia Qing stood beside Hu Zifeng, following his lead to salute this striking young soldier, who looked every bit like an unsheathed blade.

Yan Long returned the gesture, her voice crisp and clean. “I’m retired now.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Hu Zifeng held his stance, straight as a rod.

Ji Li explained the situation to Yan Long. “This is Miss Xia from Plot Three, invited by Third Brother to pick a cat, but Princess seems really hostile toward her. Do you notice anything odd about Miss Xia?”

Yan Long replied, “Miss Xia has a really strong scent of an evolved wolf on her.”

Unbelievable! She hadn’t even seen a single wolf hair in the past two weeks.

Xia Qing was about to explain, but Yan Long pointed out even more clearly, “The scent is concentrated on your right hand and your waist. Besides the wolf, there’s sheep as well.”

“I did pet my evolved sheep before coming out, so the sheep scent makes sense. But I haven’t seen a wolf in weeks…” Xia Qing suddenly froze, her expression thunderstruck.

One look at Xia Qing’s face and it was obvious she’d figured out where the wolf scent came from. Ji Li explained, “Princess has had a few run-ins with evolved wolves before, so she’s pretty sensitive. Miss Xia, you won’t be able to take a kitten today.”

Xia Qing protested, “What if I go home, wash up, and come back?”

Ji Li shook his head. “Even if you took one, Princess would just sneak over and drag the kittens back again.”

With those adorable kittens right in front of her, Xia Qing couldn’t bear to give up. She struggled some more. “Even Third Brother already accepted my trade for the cat…”

Ji Li looked apologetic. “Once Third Brother’s finished up, I’ll let him know what happened.”

“Thank you.” Xia Qing cast one last longing glance at Little Fifth, who was huffing at her, then followed Hu Zifeng out of Territory Seven.

Seeing how bummed out Xia Qing was, Hu Zifeng felt bad about choosing a cat himself today. He lowered his voice and said, “Captain Yan’s a level-nine olfactory evolver. Her judgment’s never wrong. Should we have Chen Zheng and Chen Cheng check Plot Three and Area Three for any evolved wolves?”

The Azure Dragon Unit had divided Mountain 49 into ten sections. ‘Area Three’ referred to the northern non-leased section above the border with Plots One, Three, and Four—Xia Qing’s personal evolver forest.

After Xia Qing nodded, Hu Zifeng immediately made a call and put things in motion. By the time Xia Qing returned to her territory, Chen Zheng and Chen Cheng were combing through the area using their keen noses, while Da Jiang, who was guarding her land, was in the shed weeding.

As soon as Da Jiang saw Xia Qing and the captain return, he leapt up and shouted, “Brother Feng, Qing-jie, what did the kittens look like? Did you take any photos? When will you bring one home?”

Talk about rubbing salt in the wound—Hu Zifeng shot him a dark glare. “Just pull your weeds.”

Realizing he’d hit a sore spot, Da Jiang shrank back and quietly returned to weeding.

Xia Qing walked straight over to Boss Sheep, who was lounging beneath a tree. Boss Sheep squinted at her, and the battle of stares began between girl and sheep.

Hu Zifeng quietly stepped aside, joining Da Jiang to squat and weed together.

After checking all of Plot Three, Chen Zheng came over to report. “Qing-jie, the only spots with wolf scent are under the grapevine and on Boss Sheep himself. Both scents match—should be the same evolved wolf from last night. Looks like it used something to mask its smell, so we can’t tell where it entered Plot Three from.”

Hu Zifeng leaned in and asked Xia Qing, “Should we call Captain Yan over to double-check?”

Xia Qing shook her head. “No need. No need to search Area Three either. Thanks for all your help today.”

Every night, Xia Qing would set over thirty traps with sound alarms across her territory—two of them right under the grapevine. To make it easier for Wei Chengdong to fetch water, she hadn’t put any traps by the big stone covering the spring.

Only Hu Zifeng’s squad and Wei Chengdong, who came for water, knew where the traps were.

Last night, a wolf had slipped into her territory and lingered under the grapevine in the net house for ages—and managed to dodge all the tripwires. Even when she checked the land this morning, there wasn’t the slightest sign anything was wrong.

A wolf this clever wouldn’t leave its scent in Area Three of Mountain 49 for people to track which way it came or went.

Once Hu Zifeng’s squad cleared out, Xia Qing hung up a bag filled with dried fish and roasted snake meat on a tree, pointed at Boss Sheep, and called, “You! Get up!”

Realizing Xia Qing wanted to throw down, Boss Sheep stood up, displaying his spiral horns and pawing the ground, clearly ready to brawl.

Xia Qing stormed over, yelling, “When the hell did you start hanging out with evolved wolves? Something this important and you didn’t say a word?”

Boss Sheep just kept squinting and clawing at the dirt with his hooves, looking like he was spoiling for a fight.

“You’re still pawing at me?” Xia Qing couldn’t hold in her morning’s worth of frustration anymore and charged in, while Boss Sheep met her attack head-on.

“Bang!”

An advanced strength evolver and a strength-evolved sheep clashed at full power, the shockwave shaking the air all around them.

Hu Zifeng’s squad hadn’t left the Buffer Forest of Plot Three yet when they looked back and saw Xia Qing go flying, launched by Boss Sheep. She flipped midair, then kicked hard at his horn.

“Moo!” Boss Sheep stumbled back several steps from the kick, but quickly launched another charge.

“Bang!”

Da Jiang, wincing with sympathy, whispered, “Captain, what’s gotten into Qing-jie?”

Hu Zifeng replied in a resigned tone, “Boss Sheep has way too many friends.”

Aside from the wild boar at the breeding center, now he’s even buddy-buddy with evolved wolves…

Forget being a sheep—he’s basically a bull. Seriously, what a beast.

“Bang!” Xia Qing sent Boss Sheep flying several meters back with another thunderous blow.

Chen Zheng took the opportunity to school his younger brother. “See that? Don’t go messing around or running your mouth in front of Qing-jie. If you piss her off, she’ll pound you just like Boss Sheep. Think you can take it?”

Chen Cheng and Da Jiang, who’d just gotten included in the lesson, both shook their heads—they really couldn’t.

After that, Da Jiang turned to Hu Zifeng and asked, “Was that Captain Yan you mentioned earlier? The same Yan Long?”

Hu Zifeng glared at him. “Wanna see if you can take my fist instead?”

Da Jiang shrank back even more. Not a chance…

Back at the territory, Hu Zifeng reported the unsuccessful cat mission to Luo Pei.

After listening, Luo Pei couldn’t help but laugh. Xia Qing might’ve missed out on a kitten, but it looked like she’d picked up a new trade partner in that wolf instead—not a total loss after all.

But Hu Zifeng cared less about the cat and more about something else. Least of all whether he could get one himself. What really got him was seeing Yan Long show up at Zhang San’s territory. “Luo Ge, Captain Yan left Hui One Base with Zhang San. And she says she’s retired. How’s that possible?”

Luo Pei just stayed calm. “Don’t you think Zhang San’s worth the military assigning Yan Long to protect him?”

Hu Zifeng was at a loss for words.

Of course he was worth it—no doubt about that.

Luo Pei poured a cup of tea. “You know Ji Li, the one who delivers supplies to all the territories every day? Do you know what level ability-user he is?”

Hu Zifeng guessed, “Level five?”

“Level seven. Level seven speed evolver.”

Hu Zifeng was stunned.

A level-seven speed evolver could stand on his own pretty much anywhere, yet he’s stuck running errands and raising cats at Zhang San’s place…

“Bzz… bzz…”

The phone started vibrating.

Flat on her back, Xia Qing weakly ordered, “Dumbo, Dumbo, answer the phone.”

Her phone chirped cheerfully, “Okay, master. The call’s connected.”

“Xia Qing, it’s me—your Third Brother.” It was Zhang San’s calm voice on the line. Xia Qing sat bolt upright in an instant.

Not wanting to miss out on the action, Boss Sheep—who’d been lying on the ground—jumped up and got ready to brawl again when he saw Xia Qing rise.

“I heard from Ji Li there was a wolf in your territory?”

“Yeah, it was just a friend of Boss Sheep dropping by to visit. I just found out myself. Third Brother, is Princess Cat okay?” Xia Qing silently begged—please don’t let anything happen to Princess Cat, she’s still nursing two kittens.